S.F.’s top cop latest to live in Rio Rancho
Department heads are not required to reside within city limits
On any given day, officers who work for the Santa Fe Police Department but live in the more affordable city of Rio Rancho travel back and forth on Interstate 25 on their daily commute, taking advantage of the city’s take-home vehicle policy.
Now, the out-of-town officers are being joined by the man in charge.
Police Chief Andrew Padilla recently moved to Rio Rancho, following in the footsteps of not only many of his officers but also thousands of other people who work in Santa Fe and live outside the city.
Padilla already was commuting to work but from a different direction. He previously lived in Alcalde in Rio Arriba County, though he had apparently moved to Santa Fe for a short period.
“Chief Padilla moved for personal reasons outside Santa Fe County limits,” Mayor Alan Webber said in a statement Friday.
“He is a highly visible presence in our community regardless of his address,” the mayor added. “He can be found handing out popcorn at Southside Summer events, on the Plaza for
Pride weekend or rappelling off La Fonda to benefit girls’ empowerment. His presence at so many community events, in addition to the demands of his police chief duties, is a testament to his commitment to our community.”
Padilla did not return multiple messages seeking comment Thursday and Friday but confirmed to The New Mexican before the start of Wednesday’s State of the City event that he had moved to Rio Rancho.
City spokeswoman Lilia Chacon said the city doesn’t require its department heads to live within city limits.
“These are not elected offices that have a residency requirement,” she wrote in an email.
Asked whether other department heads lived in or outside the city, Chacon checked with the city’s Human Resources Department and said every high-level director except the police chief has an address on file “in either the city or county of Santa Fe.”
In an interview Wednesday, Webber said he talked to Padilla about his move.
“I also got a list of where previous chiefs of police [lived],” Webber said. “If you go back in the history of chiefs, our police chiefs have lived in many different places.”
For example, Padilla’s predecessor, Patrick Gallagher, now chief of the Las Cruces Police Department, lived in the county about five miles outside Santa Fe city limits.
Webber said he would prefer his department heads live in Santa Fe, but it’s not required.
“From my experience, he’s always on the job,” Webber said, referring to Padilla. “He’s available 24/7. If you look at the chiefs who proceeded him, I think the list indicates that maybe one out of the last four or five lived in the city consistently. The others didn’t. I don’t know that we need to hold this chief to a different standard than we’ve held other chiefs to in the past.”
Webber said Padilla is a strong chief, regardless of where he goes home.
“I think what we’re really looking for are people who are — by their service, attitude, work ethic, their values — committed to our city, and I have no doubt that Chief Padilla has all those things,” he said.
Still, Webber cited a 2014 study that found more than half of the city’s workforce lives outside city limits. The study analyzed commuting patterns for the city of Santa Fe between 2002 and 2011, the most current data available at the time, and found that the number of people living outside the city but commuting in for work grew to 51 percent, up from 42 percent.
The biggest group of commuters, 15 percent, comes from Albuquerque, followed by Rio Rancho at 7 percent.
The large number of commuters is affecting the city’s economy. A 2007 study by Homewise Inc., a nonprofit that helps lowand moderate-income people purchase homes, found that the local economy loses an estimated $301.6 million in annual spending when workers live outside Santa Fe and commute to work.
“We need to change that,” Webber said. “That’s why a housing agenda is No. 1 on everybody’s list.”